LIPA customers who spent weeks without power got zapped with their normal electric bills  as if the outages never happened.

The clueless utility charged Sandy-soaked Long Island residents an estimated rate that covered the entire billing cycle, and the statements made no mention of potential refunds to account for the prolonged blackouts.

Jonathan Saporta was slapped with a double whammy by the Long Island Power Authority  a $649 bill for the Long Beach home he left in October and a $281 bill for his new Great Neck pad.

You’d think their billing system would have some kind of extended disaster proration algorithm in it. From their point of view it’s like, wait till the meters get unearthed, then we’ll send you a refund, that is if all the refunds don’t put us into bankruptcy

8
posted on 11/24/2012 11:27:24 AM PST
by HiTech RedNeck
(How long before all this "fairness" kills everybody, even the poor it was supposed to help???)

I’m guessing these people are on what PG&E calls a “Balanced Payment Plan.” We pay the same amount monthly, regardless of actual usage. Every three months, PG&E does a true-up and we pay the overage or get a credit for the underage.

I’ve worked on utility billing systems. They are staggeringly complex and not easy to change. These companies aren’t exactly like Amazon when it comes to billing prowess and flexibility.

Long Island Power Authority is a government entity with a Board of Trustees appointed by various elected officials. The Authority is basically another government bureaucracy. The question is why anyone would expect more accountability or intelligence than any other government run entity.

Duh, last month was when the storm hit. This bill is set to be DUE by the end of the month. They don’t bill for October at the END of November. But even if it was in the middle of the billing period, it shouldn’t be the SAME. Even one week would shave a 1/4 off.

17
posted on 11/24/2012 11:40:22 AM PST
by autumnraine
(America how long will you be so deaf and dumb to the tumbril wheels carrying you to the guillotine?)

What power company actually comes out and READS meters anymore? Heck, I just moved from the middle of BFE, literally one red light in the whole COUNTY and we were updated enough for the usage to be read from the office of the electric company.

19
posted on 11/24/2012 11:42:13 AM PST
by autumnraine
(America how long will you be so deaf and dumb to the tumbril wheels carrying you to the guillotine?)

Rudy G. (as libertine personally as he is) set up such measures when he was mayor. When 9/11 happened he went out and acted quite in character. The New Yorkers expected it, as they should have.

RG cleaned up Times square (or allowed it by allowing capitalists to come in and do it) he had draconian measures against graffitti, panhandlers, window breakers,the mafia (which he’d cleaned up as local federal prosecutor) even jaywalking.

The City ran very well and people could eat and smoke what and wherever they wanted to.

Just because it’s the first time they’ve ever experienced this doesn’t make it new or special.

Every power outage I’ve ever had that lasted more than a day resulted in higher electric bills. That climate control has to reheat a thoroughly cold house, or cool a very hot one. That makes the meter spin.

The squawking and complaining might be a cultural thing but it doesn’t come across very well to those of us who deal with this every year to some extent.

What power company actually comes out and READS meters anymore? Heck, I just moved from the middle of BFE, literally one red light in the whole COUNTY and we were updated enough for the usage to be read from the office of the electric company.

AMENDMENT:

Although I have to admit that was only about 7 years ago. Before, when you got your power bill, you went outside and wrote down your new reading. Yes, electricity on the honor system, LOL. I said, rinky dink town. However, you did get ‘audited’ with a meter reader once a year and were billed the difference if you lied.

24
posted on 11/24/2012 11:43:52 AM PST
by autumnraine
(America how long will you be so deaf and dumb to the tumbril wheels carrying you to the guillotine?)

If they are on the budget plan, it makes sense then. You are paying the same amount every month, regardless. With a credit, or bill at the end of the year. This works in your favor for high cost months, but also can bite you in case of a mega-frankenstorm.

27
posted on 11/24/2012 11:45:15 AM PST
by autumnraine
(America how long will you be so deaf and dumb to the tumbril wheels carrying you to the guillotine?)

The New Yorkers deal with power outages more than anyone I’ve ever seen.

There are tens of millions (10,000,000+) people affected and how many complaints have you heard? The folks in Breezy Point? They lost their entire village to a fire (the whole village - the only thing left standing was a statue of the BVMary) and the only thing I’ve seen of them is from the inside of St. Thomas More Church listening to the words of their pastor.

Long Island Newsday came out in favor of Romney (first time in an extremely long time endorsing a GOPer).

We are mad at them for voting Dem, but let’s give them credit for self reliance.

Sure, but either way, they hate law and order guys who make things livable.

they love stupid Bloomberg doddering about taking away sugar and salt and planning a marathon which starts IN Staten Island the same week that 19 Staten Islanders died (not counting the bodies of mob hits uncovered after the flood)

Sure, the utility company sending high electric bills to folks who haven't had any electric power for weeks is outrageously stupid, just like the town/city/county putting threatening 'code violation' notices on homes that have been wrecked by the hurricane and are now unlivable. This is the downside of a huge bureaucracy, be it public or quasi-private, such as LIPA.

However, although we regret the physical losses and human suffering the victims of hurricane Sandy have endured, we feel that people who (a) choose to live next to an ocean and, (b) routinely elect and support leftist Democrat politicians decade after decade are not exactly objects of great sympathy from those of us who consider their choices as foolish and misguided. Still, sending out utility bills to Sandy's victims that have been without power for weeks on end was incredibly stupid.

That isn’t what applied here, as witness the man who tried to call in a discrepancy, which WOULD NOT BE ALLOWED AT ALL (not just be denied for being too great) on an “equal payment plan.” You not only project, you set up an exquisite straw man.

36
posted on 11/24/2012 12:04:58 PM PST
by HiTech RedNeck
(How long before all this "fairness" kills everybody, even the poor it was supposed to help???)

They’re probably on an even-pay system where the estimated use is the monthly average bill and they end up with a debit or credit at the closeout of the billing year. Their utilities, however will up their bills because they took in less money while power was out and they have to pay the overtime for all of those union local linemen whose unions turned away free help from out of state non-local-union linemen. The free help would have cut into the windfall profits (overtime) of the union linemen.

39
posted on 11/24/2012 12:20:51 PM PST
by RJS1950
(The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)

Read the original article please, not just the excerpt. One customer tried to submit an adjustment online and was not refused due to not being on an appropriate payment plan for that; he was refused due to the system blindly estimating that his adjustment was too large.

45
posted on 11/24/2012 12:31:56 PM PST
by HiTech RedNeck
(How long before all this "fairness" kills everybody, even the poor it was supposed to help???)

You’re correct. they were estimated bills. it says so on the bill. The numbers will be adjusted in january when the meters are actually read and the usage and lack of it for the two weeks will be be measured. This seems a big story and the Post and local TV and radio are making a big deal about it. Funny though. none of the media bother to inform the public that LIPA is a state agency. Wonder why?

You’re correct. they were estimated bills. it says so on the bill. The numbers will be adjusted in january when the meters are actually read and the usage and lack of it for the two weeks will be be measured. This seems a big story and the Post and local TV and radio are making a big deal about it. Funny though. none of the media bother to inform the public that LIPA is a state agency. Wonder why?

It was the way their system blindly reacted to the inability to read a lot of the meters. Instead of issuing NO bill, it issued a (very stupidly, in this case) “estimated bill.” These were NOT fixed-payment plans as two here have already asserted without reading the linked article.

49
posted on 11/24/2012 12:39:31 PM PST
by HiTech RedNeck
(How long before all this "fairness" kills everybody, even the poor it was supposed to help???)

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